Former big league All-Star pitcher Park Chan-ho has not been able to prevent the Hanwha Eagles from dropping to the bottom of the standings this season in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO). / Korea Times file

By Jung Min-ho

The Hanwha Eagles once again failed to register a victory in Sunday’s game. They fell 8-4 to the Samsung Lions at Cheongju Baseball Stadium for a fourth consecutive loss.

The Lions opened the scoring in the third inning thanks to a two-run homer by Park Seok-min. Bae Yeong-seob’s hit took the lead to 3-0 at the top of the sixth. The Eagles then rallied to tie the game by the bottom of the inning through Han Sang-hun’s two-run homer and a hit by Lee Dae-soo.

Jin Kab-yong extended the Lions lead by two at the top of the eighth before Kim Tae-kyun’s first home run of the season meant it was 5-4 going into the ninth. But there was no coming back for the Eagles with Lee Seung-yeop’s two-run homer and another scoring hit for Bae Yeong-seob sealing their fate.

Hanwha pitcher Denny Bautista received the biggest blame for the loss after he gave up five runs after taking the mound in the eighth inning.

The Eagles disappointed the home fans once again. With this result, Hanwha became the first team to reach ten losses this season, with only two wins in 12 games.

Although their poor performance can be attributed to various factors, the star players are not doing well. The Eagles were full of hope for this season when the team signed slugger Kim Tae-kyun, paying him the highest salary in KBO history. The team also added former Major League pitcher Park Chan-ho to beef up the bullpen. Park has one win and a loss for a 3.55 ERA, while Kim has just 23 hits 3 runs in 46 at-bats, not living up to expectations considering the amount the team had to pay to recruit him.

Hanwha had three wins at the same stage last season, sweeping aside anticipation that the team would perform much better with its new recruits.